TOM5 Madison Star for Delia Webster

There is quite a story associated with block 5 - both on the Barbara Brackman Civil War blog and in my sewing room.

 For flickr purposes I usually take the photo square on but my plan is to set the blocks on point so just twist your head a little when looking at this one.

When I first saw the star I noticed that there was really only three different areas for color change and since my self designated "rules" require me to use the solid grey as the outer background, to include a small flash of the chartreuse green and to use a bird motif somewhere in the block. So that is three fabrics right there. I debated putting the bird in only one star point but I wanted to keep it balanced and since Delia Webster herself was all over the place and helping numbers of people I decided I could go ahead and use birds in all eight of the star points. These two fabrics are from the same line so they go well together.

The chartreuse green rule requires only that one fabric so I couldn't have just one star point or it would have looked really out of whack.

Construction was challenging as I not only had the eight set in seams to deal with but I also needed to pay attention to the way the birds were facing. With the fussy cutting required it seemed the method of construction best suited for the block was to make and use templates. Note to self, check templates for accuracy next time before spending hours wondering why the segments don't seem to fit together well. sigh.

 For my fun photo I noticed in the story about Delia Webster that she often hid in brush heaps so I first headed to the brush heap in my own back yard.

 Flowers are now blooming in my garden so it is hard for me to resist placing my block with a flowery background. The shot above was valid, I decided, because there are some small volunteer violas hiding under the garden bench. I doubt Delia could have hidden herself very well there.

And then there is the clematis on the archway on the front wall. This clematis was purchased and planted last year when I had been working on my purple, green and white Women's Suffrage quilt for many months; I noticed it impacted several color decisions I made during that time. But somehow I don't think we will see a profusion of grey flowers in my garden next summer!

Wonder how many set in seams there will be in block 6?

Thoughts of Summer

The past several weeks have been really hectic and I am all out of order in posting my projects.

Some months ago I "acquired" the job of exhibits chair of an art group I belong to. For the month of June we had scheduled to mount an "all member" exhibit at our local library. Since I am now the one who is "where the buck stops" it was up to me to pull together an exhibition so I thought I better at least make a piece myself in case there were not too many entries for the show.

Now you surely know I like to title things in advance and work the fine details. For this show I decided to have a theme and I chose "Thoughts of Summer" thinking that would give a lot of scope for the artists as it could be items iconic to summer or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, it could be cool wintery thoughts to get you through the hot summer days.

My projects are usually lengthy time wise. But this one I started work on during the weekend of May 16 and now, here it is, hanging in the show on June2.

The title of the piece is "The Thinking Chair" meant to invoke the concept that this is where I might sit to have my "Thoughts of Summer". Initially intended to have a lot more embellishing than this I began with some pennant flags on the masts of the sailboats, added a few colorful fish and dropped a pair of sunglasses on the sand by the chair. Once it comes down off the wall I've got some paua shell pieces I'd like to add and maybe some beads and other bits and bobs.

Being a detail person there are little splashes here and there throughout the piece that depict what I might be dreaming of as a summer vacation. The background was intended to be somewhat pale as, after all, it is just thoughts. But look closely and you'll see images of things associated with relaxing and taking it easy.

Guess where I'd like to be vacationing this summer!

The artists came through and there are forty pieces on view. Tomorrow night is the opening reception so I look forward to hearing what the community thinks of our exhibition.

Where Poppies Grow In May

Block 5 in the Remembering Almo project is titled The Airplanes.

 This block gave me some angst in the making. As directed by the provided pattern the striped area is meant to be pieced. Oh no, I thought, that belongs in the "too difficult" basket. Instead I decided to use a striped fabric. H'mm, the idea was sound but the execution? I was away sewing with friends for the weekend and did not have access to a printer much less all my usual supplies; I decided to foundation piece it. Not a good choice as it turned out.

However, I thought about all those servicemen in World War I and how they continued to persevere under very dire circumstances and decided I better persevere too and carry on with the plan.

In May Grandpop was involved in significant action at Gallipoli. Having landed on April 25, his 4th Otago company was involved in a battle from May 2nd through 4th. That battle took the lives of 143 men from the Company but Grandpop was a lucky survivor although he did sustain a gunshot wound to the right shoulder. This took him away from the frontline to an army hospital In Birmingham, England.

 As Grandpop was a foot soldier in WWI he was not involved with airplanes. But my Father-in Law served in WWII in the US military as a pilot in the Airborne Troop Carrier division.

For this month I am honoring his service.

We are fortunate to have my FIL's uniform jacket and I have used it to pose the May block.

TOM 4 Canada Star for Lucie Blackburn

I have only just remembered that I have not put last week's Threads of Memory block here on the blog. Oops.

I am trying to get used to a new camera and the technolgy that goes with it - this is a steep learning curve for me!

When this block came out last week I was away at a quilt retreat. Once the block was finished I'm not really sure if I like those four grey squares but, for now, this is my block four. In reality the dark fabric of the star points shows better. 

That solid grey I am using in all the blocks? If I had realized the challenges of photographing it when I started I may have chosen another fabric. But I also understand that everyone has their computer monitors set differently which accounts for one person in the flickr group who keeps commenting that she loves my purple block. The pale grey floral fabric that I have used here to frame the center star was originally going to be the background fabric that I used in every block for this project until I switched my plan to the solid grey.  

Additionally, remember that I am going to be setting my blocks on point so the little bird will not be running uphill as it is here!

For my fun shot I had to accent the Canada portion of the story. My dear Canadian friend Rhonda has contributed most of the items in this setup - you just have to smile at those owls she made for me. Thanks Rhonda!

Does anyone else find themselves second guessing their color/fabric plan at this point in a project? Or am I more of a perennial ditherer than most of you?

Where Poppies Grow in April

April is a particularly poignant month for the families of New Zealand and Australian service members as Anzac Day, a solemn national day of remembrance, is marked each year on April 25.

The block for this month had a variety of ways to color it. In some methods you get the impression of a layered look with the outer triangles peeled back. I ended up making mine with the center cross dominating given the significance of the month of April.

For Grandpop  April had a number of important happenings in his service history. On April 12, 1915 his unit embarked for the Dardanelles. On April 28, 1916 he entered the NZ Convalescent Depot in Codford, Essex, England. In April, 1917 he was admitted to the No. 7 General Hospital in St Omer (near the French town of Calais). And lastly, he disembarked from the troop ship SS Corinthic at the New Zealand port of Lyttelton on April 22 in 1919 at the end of his overseas service.

My extra photo this time represents three generations of my family - there is a poppy on the left for my Grandpop, 1st Battalion Otago Infantry Regiment, one poppy for my Dad, 36th Battalion and then from my generation, the block I made and the contribution of the ribbon for the 2014 Anzac Day commemoration produced by the Te Awamutu RSA from my sister who lives in Te Awamutu.

Anzac Day - Lest We Forget.

TOM 3 New Garden Star for Catherine White Coffin

Here we are with the March block for the Threads of Memory Project.

 I have taken the photo full on although you might recall I intend to set my blocks on point so that is why the bird looks a little unsure of itself here - I cut the fabric so the bird will look correct when the block is turned on point.

I'm not sure if it is the power of suggestion or not but two of my friends who are doing this spoke of having difficulty selecting their fabrics. I auditioned quite a few before my technical advisor and I could find a combination we agreed on.

Pleasant but nothing exciting about that quite plain spiky point.

 Too many stripes perhaps?

My technical adviser just did not like that grey and white stripe - it looks like pyjamas he said!

So I had another dig through the project bin and found this very satisfying fabric which gives me a feathered feeling to compliment the bird in the center.

I was at first held up by needing to redraft the block pattern. I was out at a quilt show yesterday and when I came home I noticed many people (on the discussion page for Threads of Memory) had been having difficulty with the pattern as provided. My decision was made to hand draft it and draw it up for paper foundation piecing - this did add to my completion time but I was rewarded with a very accurately sized block that I only had to stitch one time with no need for the seam ripper to make an appearance.

 The title for the block this month is New Garden Star and it is named after the town of New Garden, North Carolina that Catherine White Coffin and her husband Levi along with their baby son Jesse left behind to relocate to Newport, Indiana. There they established a Quaker Meeting House that they named New Garden and from which they assisted many runaway slaves on their way to a new and free life.

I will be in need of a new garden very soon as the moles have taken over mine by digging their own version of an underground railway. Grand Central Station is to the right of the tree with the Green Man. To add to the woes in my garden we have had unrelenting sleet most all day long despite having passed into Spring ten days ago.

This is a more pleasant New Garden scene with 33% of my indoor garden (I have very few potplants because this house is not really very suitable for them. However, this African Violet is growing very enthusiastically).

The project so far has given us intriguing new stars and I look forward to seeing all twelve together.

Where Poppies Grow

Yes, it's been a while since I posted but I have had a boatload of things going on keeping me away from blogging.

Back in January I decided to work on a second Block of the Month project, "Where Poppies Grow" which is being presented by the Kansas City Star Quilts in conjunction with Pickle Dish. The following is taken directly from the Pickle Dish site:
"Denniele O’Kell Bohannon of Louanna Mary Quilt Design in Harrisonville, Mo., and Janice Britz of Bee Merry Farms in Peculiar, Mo., designed this year’s quilt as a remembrance of Almo Ebenezer O’Kell, Bohannon’s great-grandfather.
Angela Walters of Quilting Is My Therapy in Kearney, Mo., did the free-motion quilting."

The project is a tribute to those who served in World War I. Each month there is a story based on letters home written by Almo Ebenezer O'Kell who was the Great-Grandfather of designer Denniele Bohannon.

My Grandfather, James Patrick Coughlan, served in World War I with the New Zealand Army 1st Battalion (Otago) which was stationed in a variety of locations in Belgium from 1916 to 1918 and thus I have a particular family connection to the spirit of this project. Flanders Fields Where Poppies Grow is in Belgium and my Grandfather spent much of his time in service there.

 This is the January block Father's Choice. Grandpop's battalion completed a tour of duty on the Cordonnerie line (SW of Armentieres) on January 24, 1917. Many Australian troops had also seen service in that area.

The blocks are a combination of piecing with an applique Laurel Wreath surrounding each block. I have gotten the piecing portion done but I want to do the applique by hand and have not made a start on that yet. My official reason is because I am waiting until I have a few months of blocks made to better judge whether my applique will use a scrappy approach or stick with just one color of leaf. (More on that later in this post). But the real truth is that I have just been too busy to get to it yet.

 The February block Love Entangled. In February 1917 Grandpop was in Bois Grenier a very frosty and foggy area in Flanders.

The original quilt for this project is done in red, white and blue but I have chosen to make mine based on the dress uniform colors of the NZ Army from that era. For color and topic I will also use a poppy fabric in each block. As well as being the name of the quilt project the poppy is a well known emblem of remembrance in New Zealand for those who served in World Wars.

 The March block Dog Tooth Violet - this is a very pleasing block to my eye. On March 14, 1917 Grandpop's battalion marched out of Nieppe and into Messines which was to become the site of one of the most famous battles of WWI.

The three blocks together along with an authentic hat albeit from the Australian Army - the two countries were very close in service and colors. The color is very difficult to find in fabric - if you are in the brown section you say, no, I need to go look in the green section but when you get there it's apparent you are still not in the right color family. Sometimes the Japanese taupe fabrics are a good match. You might have seen a crazed shopper in many area quilt shops as well as hitting up all the vendor booths at a recent large quilt show - I carry along the hat and use it to select fabrics. Of course, as is typical for me, I now have enough fabric to make several quilts in this colorway.

My main background fabric is from the P & B Textiles Suede collection. I will make the blocks as given but I will be doing a border of my own design. My younger sister is soon to visit from New Zealand and I have charged her (a non-quilter) with bringing me some yardage of a New Zealand icon fabric  which I hope to use in the appliqued laurel wreath (there, another reason I can't start the applique yet!)

If you would like to know more about this project - and maybe even make one for yourself - then go here.
A new block is posted each third Sunday of the month.

I must also mention my great admiration of the research done by my older sister, Kerry, who was working on a history of the service years of Grandpop when she passed away in October 2013.

My work on this project is dedicated to the memory of both my Grandpop, James Patrick Coughlan and my sister, Kerry (Coughlan) Payne.